Baby's In Black
by Tea and a Notebook
Summary: This is based off of a prompt I was given. Daniel is in a car accident, and Kate is terrified. I got the title from a Beatles song of the same name, with fairly relevant lyrics. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Perception or the characters.


_ "Uh, Kate? It's Max. You might want to come down to the hospital. The Doc is, um… well, he's not doing well."_

That was the last thing Kate remembered hearing before her mind went blank.

She had just gotten back to the office from her lunch break when she played back her messages and heard Max's voice, heard him struggling to remain calm.

And then she froze.

"Kate? Kate!" Probert was staring at her, visibly concerned. He touched her arm. "Kate, you look like you've seen a ghost; what the hell is going on?"

She snapped her head around to face him, eyes wide. "I gotta go," she said slowly, picking up her coat and walking to the elevators as if in a trance.

She couldn't think, couldn't breathe, was numbed by fear. She was robotic, a zombie, systematically starting her car, pulling out onto the highway, driving, driving, driving. She didn't know what else to do, unable to do anything else. How far away was this _goddamn_ hospital?

Finally, Kate reached the clinic and bolted into the emergency room, breaking the barrier that slowed her actions. She turned in circles, staring around wildly, until Max appeared before her and put his hands on her shoulders to cease her search.

"Is he- did he? An episode? What happened? Where is he?" Kate asked frantically, still staring around, half hoping he would appear, peel himself off the wall and chastise her for not having a little faith.

"Slow down, okay?" Lewicki was distraught, but could tell he would have to be the strong one. "He was in a car accident… of sorts."

Kate was perturbed. "He doesn't drive," she stated flatly.

"Yea, well, that's why it was so bad…" Lewicki exhaled slowly. "He left campus in the middle of the day, he, he was walking in the middle of the road." He looked down. "The woman that hit him said… she said it looked like he was talking to himself. She didn't see him coming."

Kate knew that Daniel could completely check out of life if his hallucinations became too potent. She couldn't imagine what he must have been seeing if he allowed himself to be led into the path of a speeding automobile.

"He's still in the emergency room- no, you can't see him," Max added, correctly guessing Kate's next words as she opened her mouth. "They should be taking him out any minute now, they need to prep him for surgery, he, uh, he lost a lot of blood." He looked over Kate's shoulder. "Hang on, I think he's coming out now."

Kate spun in the direction of Lewicki's eyes, and what she saw nearly made her faint. There, on a gurney, lying bloody, unconscious, covered in bandages with an oxygen mask over his mouth, was Daniel.

Kate lost every bit of composure she was trying so hard to maintain. She lunged after him, calling his name, before Max grabbed her around her middle and pulled her back. Breaking into tortured sobs, she leaned into his arms and cried into his shoulder. Lewicki held her, stroking her hair, staring after his mentor with pain in his eyes. "It's okay, shh, shh, it's okay…" he whispered, holding back tears of his own.

Hours later, Kate was sitting alone in the hospital waiting room, flipping through magazines, taking in nothing from the flimsy pages. Lewicki had returned to campus; he had classes, and knew that Dean Haley would be anxiously awaiting news. Kate, however, had called in to the Bureau to say she wouldn't be in for the rest of the day, and had fallen back in to her dazed stupor.

Then, a doctor appeared through the fateful doors through which Daniel had disappeared. When he saw Kate, the only soul in the room, he made his way over to her.

"You're here for Dr. Pierce, correct?" he asked, consulting his clipboard.

Kate jumped to her feet. "Yes! Yes, I am. Is he- how is-?" She couldn't complete her thoughts, she was shaking, tears already returning to her eyes.

The doctor smiled. "He's fine. The surgery went well, everything seems to be normal. He has a few broken bones, but nothing that won't heal. He's a lucky man, lucky to be alive."

Kate gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. Despite the comforting words, she began to cry, trembled where she stood. "Can I- can I see him?"

"Of course, follow me." The surgeon led her through a series of bland hallways into Daniel's room. With another smile, he closed the door behind him as he left.

"Daniel," she whispered.

Daniel sat up in his bed and smiled at her, a wide smile that seemed to pain him, though he didn't seem to care.

"Kate," he said. "I should have known you would be here. So, I guess that car was real, huh?"


End file.
